Rafay Latif (IBFF Fellow – Karachi, Sindh) –"As a part of IBFF I gained the opportunity to actually 'express' myself, and was appreciated for it."

Rani Wahidi (IBFF Fellow - Quetta, Balochistan) –"I have learned so much since the first day of applying for the fellowship. With IBFF we were able to prove that the men and women of Balochistan are extremely talented."

Ahmed Hassan (IBFF Fellow – Islamabad, Pakistan) – "We need to have more programs like this, because we have so much talent around us and less platforms."

Asfa Syed (Top 25 - Karachi, Sindh) – "I learned so much about the cultural diversity in Pakistan and made so many new friends. Thank you IBFF!"

Sangeeta Thappa (Deputy Country Representative, UN Women Pakistan) –"I can sense the passion of these young filmmakers, men and women, the passion to contribute to the society and bring the society towards gender equality and women's empowerment."

Abrar Ul Hassan (Founder/Director IBFF) – "We have forgotten how to think. We don’t question anything. These are the things that create stories; these are the things that help find a solution to the problems around us."

About

Building on the basic right of freedom of opinion and expression, Izhar By Film Fellowship is a platform for the youth that encourages, trains and celebrates 'expression' (izhar) through storytelling and filmmaking. Izhar By Film has been created with the sole motive to harness the power of storytelling and the medium of film in order to empower individuals so they raise their voice on issues that matter to them and the community around them. This program seeks to train young adults through rigorous training and mentorship sessions to not just involve themselves in a creative process of storytelling through filmmaking but also convey impactful messages to the society.

Fellowships

The Izhar By Film Fellowships are carefully designed programs that train and mentor the selected participants regarding the art of storytelling on a social issue and give them a platform to exhibit their learning.

APPLICATIONS CLOSED

The Izhar By Film Fellowship on the Social and Political Rights of Women in Pakistan was brought forward with the support of UN Women to engage and encourage youth to create awareness regarding the mentioned rights of women in Pakistan. The broad areas this fellowship included; harassment-free workplaces and educational institutes, women's access to safe public spaces, internet safety for women and women's political rights.

The top 60 candidates were selected out of over 200 applications for the first-ever four-day fellowship training which commenced in Islamabad in February 2017. The program comprised of a hands-on training covering various aspects of concept development, photography, camera techniques, filmmaking and post-production with guidance of esteemed mentors.

Following the trainings the participants submitted films, which were then judged by the IBFF Jury. The best films were acknowledged at a national screening in March 2017, in the capital of Pakistan. Those behind the top 10 films were declared the first batch of fellows of the Izhar By Film Fellowship program. That was not all, as the top 3 received scholarship grants of 100,000 PKR (1ST Prize), 50,000 PKR (2ND Prize) and 25,000 PKR (3RD Prize).

Speaking of the initiative, Mr. Jamshed Kazi (Country Representative, UN Women Pakistan) said, "With a new generation of aspiring filmmakers benefiting from the first-ever Izhar by Film Fellowship, we look forward to seeing a move beyond tired stereotypes that constrain women's access to and participation in social and political activities, a move that simultaneously inspires public action against gender inequalities."

APPLICATIONS CLOSED

The Second Fellowship focused on empowering citizens through storytelling with the support of Open Society Foundations and aimed to build the capacity of 25 students in Gilgit Baltistan on the art of citizen journalism.

In a 5-day Training program, 25 students participated in the intensive trainings on the importance and techniques of citizen journalism in Pakistan. This training focused on enabling the youth to raise their voice through reporting for their community using various mediums including film, especially with regards to the social context of Gilgit-Baltistan. The participants submitted exemplary films and reports representing the Gilgit-Baltistan region.

APPLICATIONS CLOSED*

Izhar By Film Fellowship presents its third Fellowship targeting yet another crucial social issue that needs to be addressed. The Izhar By Film Fellowship on Accountability and Transparency, has been brought to you with the support of Accountability Lab to create a more accountable and responsible youth in Pakistan and encourage transparency in Pakistan.

This exclusive fellowship shall train 12 individuals in the art of storytelling and filmmaking towards the production of a 60-Second documentary on accountability and integrity encouraging constructive debate and public motivation to eradicate corruption and immorality in Pakistan.

This fellowship aims to utilize Film as a medium to highlight and ‘express’ the corrupt and immoral acts from the highest officials to the common man, which take place on a daily level and eventually prompt society’s thoughts on internalizing integrity and focus on bringing a change from within. The best films shall be promoted and celebrated on various platforms by IBFF, giving due recognition to the talented filmmakers.

ELIGIBILITY

In order to be eligible, applicants must:

Be at least 15 years old, and

Have keen interest in filmmaking and storytelling for an impact.

Project Overview

This year Izhar by film fellowship came up with a Citizen Journalism campaign. This workshop was organized to bring young people on board who were interested in citizen journalism and polish them. The campaign consisted of both Film and Radio journalism. The planned campaign was completed in tenure of 4 months.

The goal of this campaign was to employ filmmaking and radio to highlight journalism in the society/or community they live in which is called as citizen journalism. It also aims to engage people in an interactive manner in hopes of inculcating a sense of journalism while encouraging responsibility as citizens who are aware of the local news that are happening around them.

Project Objectives

The objective of this project is that IBFF provide a platform to young filmmakers in producing 60 second films and audios on electoral issues of Pakistan. The aim of this project is to also to increase knowledge of citizen journalism. This was done in 3 days training of youth to develop key messages to create awareness through social media by films and audio on different topics. The areas that IBFF have covered are:

Social & political rights of Citizens.

Principal, ethics & norms of Citizen Journalism.

Introduction to cyber-crime bill (PECB).

Dissemination of content/reports.

Identifying issues and how to highlight them.

Morango Films intends to reach out to the youth and aspiring filmmakers at grassroots levels of the local society. The motive of this is to engage a group of individuals belonging from the targeted backgrounds, with the aim to develop and foster the skills of filmmaking/radio. The trainings for the young aspiring filmmakers was based on a course designed on a sensitive approach that has enlighten the minds of the youth in a more creative but subtle manner.

DELIVERABLES

The planned campaign aspires to engage aspiring storytellers in the production of 60 second documentaries while focusing on socially important issues such as social and the political rights of citizen.

This consists of a total of five phases.

PHASE ONE – Call for Competition

The first phase involves advertising and promotion on social media to the targeted demographics to apply for the training. This phase also consists of the designing and planning, and the printing and production of relevant promotional materials.

PHASE TWO – Selection of 60 Filmmakers

The next phase comprises of the selection of the top 55 applicants. The 55 candidates exhibiting the most drive and potential from all over Pakistan were selected to participate in the training course. For this purpose and an extensive course was designed along with the schedule of the trainings.

The trainees had detailed and intense mentorship sessions with experts. The trainees were to be expected to fill out post workshop evaluation online. After all the training sessions have been completed, the trainees were given the task to create assignments on 60 Second films which help create awareness regarding the social and political rights of citizen in Pakistan.

PHASE FOUR – Selection of films

The fourth phase entails the selection of the top 10 assignments which conveys a message along the lines of the theme of the campaign.

Mentor Profiles:

1. Dilawar Khan

With fifteen years of professional experience, he passionately decided to payback and serve his nation and bring a difference. To serve his nation and passion, he founded CODE PAKISTAN (Cursor of Development and Education Pakistan), a non-profit, independent organization. CODE is an effort to build an inclusive and prosperous Pakistan through development and education initiatives.

During his professional career, he served the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (UNICTY), The Hague. He has the privilege of working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). And, most recently he served as a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador in Pakistan. He has done M.Phil from the National Defense University (NDU) Islamabad. Currently he is a Doctoral Candidate in Peace and Conflict Studies at the Center of International Peace and Stability (CIPS), National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Pakistan.

2. Sarwar Bari

Mr. Sarwar Bari is a Trustee of Trust for Democratic Education and Accountability (TDEA) Board. He works as a National Coordinator at Pattan Development Organization since 1993. He is one of the founding members of Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN) and also was its First Secretary General. He is also member of a Steering Committee member at Alliance for Reforms and Democracy in Asia (ARDA). He has more than twenty years of professional experience in Election monitoring (local and general elections) as well as assessment of governance and political parties. As the National Coordinator of PATTAN, Sarwar Bari has led a number of research studies on themes related to elections, democracy and governance. He has to his name numerous articles published in leading newspapers on the importance of elections and strengthening the democratic processes.

3. Farieha Aziz

Farieha Aziz is a Karachi-based journalist and teacher. She joined Newsline in 2007, rising to assistant editor. She has a Masters in English literature from the University of Karachi. She worked with Newsline (July 2007-Jan 2012) and taught literature to grades 9-12 (Aug 2011-May 2012) at an IB school in Karachi. Farieha was awarded the APNS award for Best Investigative Report (Business/Economic) for the year 2007-2008. She is a co-founder and Director at Bolo Bhi, an advocacy forum of Digital Rights.

Alumni Network

The journey of the Izhar By Film Fellowship does not end with the completion of the program. Fellows automatically become a part of the IBFF Alumni Network which comes with its own perks and benefits. Besides being a part of a vast community of leaders and filmmakers, becoming an alumnus means access to a wide support group of creative individuals that may learn from each other and work together in future projects.

As a part of the IBFF Alumni Network, the individuals gain access to small grants and funding opportunities for short films, conducting screening events or even conducting trainings and workshops to spread the knowledge obtained through IBFF. The preference will be towards those individuals and groups who want to continue work that reforms the society as a whole.

Grants

The Izhar By Film Fellowship is a platform that aims to constantly encourage creative storytellers in raising their voice on socially important issues through film and other methods of storytelling. For this purpose, IBFF has allocated certain grants and funds for those talented individuals with outstanding ideas. It is not necessary to have participated in the Izhar By Film Fellowship previously. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and grants offered may range from $1000 to $5000.

In order to be considered for the IBFF Fund Grant, applicants must satisfy the following Rules and Eligibility Requirements:

The proposed activity must be the individual's own intellectual property.

The proposed project shall address a pressing social issue in his or her surroundings.

The projects proposed should be in its early stage of production.

The applicants must be able to share some footage in order to demonstrate their idea and ability to execute the proposed project.

If there is no footage available, the applicant must provide supporting content as a sample of their abilities and expertise.

If you receive an IBFF grant, the following must be kept in mind:

IBFF shall be mentioned on all content produced due to the grant.

A progress report must be submitted to IBFF depending on the duration of the project activity.

In order to apply for the IBFF Grant you must provide:

A brief description of the proposed project.

The timeline for the project.

Previous projects (if any).

Short profiles of the team members.

A budget which shows how the grant will be utilized.

For applications and further details please contact team IBFF at izharbyfilm@gmail.com